#5 The Desires of our Hearts
God's Voice • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Love Speaks - Hearing God’s Voice
Love Speaks - Hearing God’s Voice
#5 The Desire of our Hearts
#5 The Desire of our Hearts
What is God’s will like?
What is God’s will like?
A question that I have pondered allot when I was a young christian in college. What is the will of God for my life?
One exact Perfect will of God - Is there one exact precise will of God for me? a perfect will? If, so do I have any free-will at all? What if I delay or hesitate for a moment? Or in a act of temptation sin, and never be in his will again? Such questions should chill us cause us a great deal of concern. Nothing can be more important in our life than following the will of God. But such precision and exactitude in following God’s will is not practical for us. No one can meet that standard but Jesus. God knows our frailty. Therefore, certainly our actions can bear tremendous consequences. But God’s ability to redeem is and restore us to get us back on the path of His will must be much greater than anything we can do to derail it. Scene in Jesus Revolution, toward the end were Chuck smith is concerned that he may have ruined the revival by his actions. His wife assures him his is not so great that he could stop a move of God.
So of course God must deal with children that can sin and make a mess of things… he has provided a way to clean them up and bring them back into a right relationship with him. He has the ability to still guide and control the course of human events. - While still allowing us free will.
Metaphors or Models of God’s Will in your life.
The CROSS_Fence - IN college i felt that God’s will was like fenced backyard - fenced in the shape of a cross.-Stay inside the cross-fence. The bible defines the moral boundaries of your life and you can do anything you want inside of that. - this idea did not really address the dynamic of the Holy Spirit guiding my steps. This model would not really work for how god worked with the Prophet Hosea, to live and action sermon before Israel by marrying a prostitute, and buying her back again after she left him. That whole sermon would have been outside the fence. SO clearly God’s guidance is more
tight rope - Or if you want another view based on walking with the Lord… is his will like a tight rope?
This is a much better model than the backyard with morality fencing. Because to show that there is a destination. and a path.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
here it is clear there is a will for your life, and it is narrow, it is not wide. The Gate of course is Jesus. and the path is a walk we take with him, listening to the Holy spirit guide us on the path.
21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
with the picture of a tight rope comes the very real concern… “what happens if we fall off, if we make a mistake?” Can we really hear so precisely that we can move quickly down such a path? I probably could not get out of bed if I had to hear from god each minute step of the day. That starts to make it look like the way narrower than Jesus meant I think. What if he intends for us to exercise a degree of freedom, and move forward down the path with more speed and confidence?
a stream. Imagine the will of god like stream. It is certainly narrow compared to wandering all over the countryside, Within the banks of the stream there is room to follow jesus within our free will. we can make our own choices within the revealed will of God, as we ASK & LISTEN, and THEN when we get directions from the Holy Spirit, we can move right or left to as needed. As long as we do not climbing out of the river and onto the banks, God’d will leaves room for the unique self expression he has given to each of us.
it is not to great a thing for god to craft the stream that we will be in, and provide for us the nudges of current and wind as well as knowing our own choices before we make them, to plan and chart a path for us… even before we were born.
he did this for Jeremiah
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
created for a purpose!
The desires of our HEART
This model fits a bit better with the story of God working with King David in 2 Samuel 7:1–3 after having move the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, and starts to think about how to honor God.
1 Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” 3 And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”
confirmation of a desire to serve God
NOT - Disney “follow your heart” advice without restriction, for your heart is often wicked. But this is a heart that is seeking to do God’s will and has desires that have been made obedient to the will of God.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
God through the Holy spirit will place desires in your heart that are Godly, that will help direct your path toward the plan he has for you. This is the next way that we want to call out about How God speaks to us… He can speaks to us by placing Godly desires in your heart…
Obviously there are a great many sinful desires that GOD does not it any way place in your heart. And some of our desires for entertainment, is just our desires. But some of our desires are placed there by God. Even with these bounds of your heart desire, God may provide to you further guidance that will affect how far you can go with those desires.
Ultimately King David was not able to build the house for God. but was able to receive a promise his some would do it. this is why we must be ever diligent to stay inside the stream banks. As Sin can have a devastating impact on our lives.
3 “You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet.
if you stay true to god… inside the banks… Here we see that although he was given a green light by Nathan, in the end, David had to give his dream and honor to glorify God with a temple to his Son Solomon.
So is there a better way to view this leading of God through the heart?
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Could it be that God give will you multiple gifts and talents and interests, and allows you to decide? perhaps. That is him directing your steps through the desires of your heart. placing in you with
The key is to maintain a close relationship with with the Holy spirit… the closest of any relationship you have. more important than everything else.
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
How does God reveal his will for your life?
At a special gathering of leaders in the Jerusalem church they had to determiner if new gentile believers had to be circumcised as Jews.
28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
Examples:
Eric Liddell - the flying Scotsman. A portion of his life was told in the movie “Chariots of Fire” Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British historical drama film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. It is ranked 19th in the British Film Institute's list of Top 100 British films. The film is also notable for its memorable electronic theme tune by Vangelis, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Eric Liddell - He is a runner, that comes from a missionary family. He loves God, and loves to run. His sister thinks he is wasting his life on Running, and feels he should be going into the ministry. She asks him why he runs, He tells her: I know God has made me for the mission field but also
“God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. ”
― Eric Liddell
– Left image, Liddell in Paris Olympics, 1924.
https://www.biographyonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Eric_Liddell-paris1.jpg.webp
Everything goes well until the Paris Olympics schedule is released. It shows that his event will happen on Sunday. He knows this will compromise his commitment to keep the Lord’s day, or disappoint his entire country and the hopes and dreams of a Gold for Scotland - as he is virtually guaranteed the gold as the fastest man alive at the 100m at that time.
Does he love God more than running? or does He run because he loves God? so he tells them he can’t run the 100m as planned and withdrew from the race – a race considered to be his strongest. Instead, he concentrated on the 400 metres as the race schedule didn’t involve a Sunday. But he has to start training just a few months before the Olympics.
Before the final 400m, he is slipped a piece of paper into his hand. It included the words from the Bible 1 Samuel 2:30 “Those who honour me I will honour”.
Sprinting from the start, Liddell created a significant gap to the other runners and held onto win gold and set a new Olympic record time of 47.6 seconds. He described his race plan:
“The secret of my success over the 400m is that I run the first 200m as fast as I can. Then, for the second 200m, with God’s help I run faster.” (BBC link)
He also won bronze in the 200m. In this race, he also beat Harold Abrahams a British rival and team-mate.
His witness to the world of placing God first ministers to the WORLD more brightly than the rest of his life in China. He heard Gods’ will to run. and then afterwards spent the rest of His life as a missionary in china. (and a
In 2002, a poll voted Eric Liddell as the most popular Scottish sports figure of all time. (1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYNUxdoIacA
Eric Metaxas summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaM9NbAeMiA
By the way in the film there are some interesting movie stars that were early in their carriers in this movie…
Ben Cross starred as Abrahams - Sarek in the 2009 reboot film Star Trek.
Ian Holms – (bilbo) his role as athletics trainer Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire, for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award.
Alice Krige I – Became the Borg Queen in Startrek First Contact
The film's title was inspired by the line, "Bring me my Chariot of fire!", from the William Blake poem published in 1808 "And did those feet in ancient time" from the preface to his epic Milton: A Poem in Two Books, The line from the poem "Bring me my Chariot of fire!" draws on the story of 2 Kings 2:11, where the Old Testament prophet Elijah is taken directly to heaven.
The phrase has become a byword for divine energy, and inspired the title of the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, in which the hymn Jerusalem is sung. The plural phrase "chariots of fire" refers to 2 Kings 6:17.
The Poem about seeing salvation come to England ends with "Would to God that all the Lords[c] people were Prophets"
Numbers 11:29 (NLT)
29 I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all!”
Wrote “Disciplines of Christian Life”
“We are all missionaries. Wherever we go we either bring people nearer to Christ or we repel them from Christ.”
― Eric Liddell
“You will know as much of God, and only as much of God, as you are willing to put into practice.”
― Eric Liddell, Disciplines of Christian Life
other stories on the Love Speaks Video
other stories on the Love Speaks Video
Fishermen for Jesus
worship leaders. “God is the God of this city”
Summary -
Summary -
Listen to God… put him first in all you do. and He will speak to you through the desires of your heart.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Mr Bean plays Chariots of Fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwzjlmBLfrQ